For the last three years, the Western Governors Association (WGA) has been working with state wildlife agencies to create a standardized map of Crucial Habitat across the western United States to inform energy, transportation, and land use planning decisions at a regional scale. A collaborative effort of this scope between state wildlife agencies has not been accomplished before, and this effort represents a huge step forward in identifying landscapes that provide important resources to wildlife.

Two units of the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas worked closely with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) ...

The Kansas Biological Survey and Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program are pleased to announce the release of a new and updated version of the Kansas Natural Resource Planner (NRP). The online mapping application combines relevant natural resource data and infrastructure data together in an online mapping environment to help users make informed decisions. The new NRP is the result of a collaborative effort between KBS and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism to provide an interactive mapping website that can be used to assist in the planning of energy and conservation projects so that Kansas can benefit from ...

The KARS Program and the Kansas Biological Survey have added new online geo-processing tools to help energy developers estimate potential new landscape impact associated with oil/gas, wind, and electric transmission lines. The tools are part of the Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (SGP CHAT) and are in support of the Lesser prairie-chicken (LPC) Range-Wide Conservation Plan that aims to conserve the species and preclude its listing as a Threatened species. In accordance with the Range Wide Plan, enrolled participants who, through the creation of new oil/gas wells, wind turbines, transmission lines…, negatively impact LPC habitat are assessed a ...

The Kansas Aquatic Resource Planner was designed to depict aquatic resources and is intended to provide general information and guidance regarding the location, condition, and value of those resources. The data here is an accumulation of data acquired from different organizations across the state as well as custom data layers and is presented here as an organized, assessable, and unbiased resource for people.

In coordination with wildlife agencies in five states, the KARS program launched the Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (SGP CHAT) September 1 as part of a multi-year effort to develop a habitat assessment tool for wind and natural gas energy developers. The project, initiated by the Western Governors Wildlife Council, aims to conserve lesser prairie-chicken habitat in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Additional species and functionality will be added in future phases of the project.